RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A North Carolina man has pleaded guilty to setting a fire inside a store in Raleigh following a demonstration over the death of George Floyd.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina said in a statement Tuesday that Richard Rubalcava faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison. The maximum potential penalty is 20 years in prison.
Federal authorities said the Raleigh man was arrested in June 2020 after a fire was set in a Dollar General Express that had been looted. Federal officials said that he’s captured entering the store numerous times before setting fire to “miscellaneous items located on an aisle endcap.”
George Floyd, a Black man, died while in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. People came together across the country to protest racism and police brutality.
Some people turned to riots and looting in the Raleigh area on May 30 and 31. Protesters also pulled down pieces of a Confederate monument near the North Carolina Capitol.
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